Lecture on

Quality Assessment of
Fragrant Raw Materials

By: Dr. Sunil KUMAR,

Dy. Quality Manager (QAL), FFDC Kannauj
Why Quality Assessment

 Greater market acceptability of the product.

 Improve consumer confidence.

 Provides appropriate price of the products.

 For detection of adulteration.

 For preparation of good quality end product.

 Facilitate export, import of the products.

Factors Affecting the Quality of Essential Oils
 Harvesting & processing of aromatic plant materials.
 Effect of moisture on essential oil.
 Storage condition.
 Adulteration of essential oil.
QUALITY OF FRAGRANCE MATERIALS

Fragrance materials mainly include essential oils

and aromatic chemicals etc.

Essential oils are produced all over the world and

quality of these oils vary widely.

Oils of same plant species vary due to variation in

origin, cultivation practices of plant materials,
distillation techniques, climatic conditions & soil
types.
Farmers are unaware of the proper cultivation practices
and specific techniques for distillation, owing to which oils
distilled, vary in configuration and properties to a great
extent.

Sometimes bad trade practices also play an important role

in deteriorating the quality of a particular essential oil or
aromatic material by mixing cheap grade materials as
adulterants for profit making.
How to Check Quality of Fragrance
Material
Physical Analysis

Specific Gravity

Refractive Index

Optical Rotation

Solubility
• Specific Gravity
SG is the ratio of density of a particular material w.r.t
to the density of water at particular temperature.
SG is checked by using pycnometer/ or a density
meter.
REFRACTIVE INDEX
 R.I is the ratio of sine of angle of incidence to sine of

angle of refraction at particular temperature.

 Determined BY ABBE Type Refractometer.

 Temperature Increases - R.I. Decreases.

 A range has been set for most of the essential oils
for these two parameters in the reference standards
and any deviation is an indication for presence of
adulterants, cheap materials or natural variations.
ABBE TYPE REFRACTOMETER
Principle Of Refractive Index
Optical Rotation
 Determined By - Polarimeter & Measured In Degree Of
Rotation.

 This is an important property to check whether a

material is having dextro rotation or leavo rotation.

 Generally most of the known essential oils and aromatic

materials are having optical rotation and a range is set
for individual materials as per nature of components
present and standards are available.

 This gives an idea about the nature of a particular

material.
Optical Rotation Depends Upon -
Indigenous Polarimeter
IMPORTED POLARIMETER
If samples are not falling in set range of specified limits are
doubted for presence of adulterants/mixing of cheap
natural materials, or natural variations in composition of
a material.
Solubility
Solubility is an important parameter for checking the quality
of an essential oil.
Solubility test gives an idea about the presence of nature of
components present in a material.
However solubility test in alcohol is an important parameter
to check presence of any added heavy material in an
essential oil which may sometimes get undetected by
analyzing other parameters including GC.
Chemical Analysis Essential oils
 ACID VALUE
 ESTER VALUE
 ESTER VALUE AFTER ACETYLATION
 CARBONYL VALUE
Chemical tests are practiced less & based on chemical reaction of
A functional group.
Values related to the overall amount of a functional group. e.g. -
All esters rather than the individual esters.
Although chemical methods of analysis has not changed much
over the years one can not rule out its significance in quality
assessment.
The acid number usually increases on aging,
especially if stored improperly and also due to
oxidation of aldehydes and hydrolysis of esters.

Hence it is very important to store oils in airtight

and dark conditions from avoiding
polymerization and Oxidation
 Instrumental Analysis
CHROMATOGRAPHIC
 Thin Layer Chromatography
 Gas Liquid Chromatography

SPECTROPHOTOMETRIC
 Ultra Violet & Visible
 Infra-Red
 Nuclear Magnetic Resonance
 GCMS (GAS CHROMATOGRAPH - MASS
SPECTROMETERY)
 Gas is used as mobile phase and liquid support as stationery
phase.
It is quick, accurate and time saving method for analysis.

A typical gas chromatograph consists of the following units -

 INJECTION PORT
 OVEN
 DETECTOR
 INTEGRATOR OR DATA PROCESSOR
Schematic Drawing Of A Gas Chromatographic
System
GAS CHROMATOGRAPH - MASS SPECTROMETER

Next to GC, GC-MS is The Most Widely Used Technique

By The Essential Oil Industry for Identification of
Constituents.

It Is Basically Combination of GC & Mass Spectrometer.

The Detector Like fid of GC Is Replaced By More

Sophisticated Detection System Viz. Mass Spectrometer,
Where in The Molecular Weight of The Component is
Obtained.
CONCLUSION
To provide a consistent quality product to consumer.

Quality checking in case of fragrance materials is a

continuous process and needs regular upgrading to find out
increasing variations and adulterations .
Dr. Sunil KUMAR (Dy. Quality Manager)
QAL, FFDC Kannauj
Mob. 9452277877